Rahul in favour of bringing new leadership in Congress

New Delhi, Dec 22: Rahul Gandhi feels that the future belongs to Congress if it makes efforts to bring up new leadership at various levels as absence of leaders in 40-50 age group is a "big handicap".

He says that Congress need not be diffident given the fact that its flagship programmes have created a groundswell of goodwill and the opposition has "no answer" for that.

After Rajiv Gandhi's assassniation, there was a gap from 1991 to 1998 to bring up new leaders which is affecting the Congress now. It is a "big handicap", the young leader is understood to have told partymen during a long interaction here.

The partymen said that Rahul told them that the response the Congress was getting now in Uttar Pradesh and the success it got in the state was proof enough that the party's basic vote was intact so also its sympathisers.

"Benibabu told me that I don't know how difficult it is to fight with Congress", Gandhi told a group of MPs and Ministers. He was apparently referring to Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma, who was till recently a close associate of Mulayam Singh Yadav in Samajwadi Party.

"The Congress committed suicide in Uttar Pradesh by giving 300 seats to the BSP during the Assembly elections in the nineties.

Even after that our 10 per cent vote has been in tact", he said adding that this showed the tremendous goodwill enjoyed by the party among the people.

Gandhi, who has been vigorously touring poll-bound UP, said that he often sees the goodwill but gets complaints that "people are ready to vote for us, but our leaders are not visiting them".